Green Goddess Dressing

I confess. I ate the photo shoot. I made a huge salad this afternoon, drizzled it with Green Goddess Dressing and proceeded to devour it. The food prepared for photographing was instead inhaled. As in, scarfed immediately.

Now normally, I’m a fairly disciplined person, so this was a bit odd. Maybe I exercised a little too hard this morning and worked up a bigger appetite than usual. Maybe the dressing is delicious on a hot summer’s day. Who knows? You’ll just need to try the recipe below to find out for yourself. Me? I think it’s delicious.

In other news, I was lucky enough to attend a marimba concert today in which both of my children performed. The show was the culmination of a summer day camp put on by Kutandara, a local group that plays Zimbabwean music. The boys had a blast –they really rocked out on stage and seemed to enjoy playing the African tunes. My older son has gone to Kutandara’s camp for the past 5 years. Now, both boys attend every summer and absolutely love it.

If you are ever in Boulder, you might want to catch a marimba show by the professional Kutandara band (not the one my children play in); the concert schedule is on their website or check out one of their excellent CD’s.

Kutandara is an entirely cross cultural experience. The directors, Amy and Randy bring over musicians from Zimbabwe to teach the children; they also do a great deal of relief work in that country. Amy and Randy are amazing people in all that they give to the Boulder community and the people of Zimbabwe –I feel forever indebted to them for the beautiful experiences they offer my family year after year.

Green Goddess Dressing
1 avocado
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon herbes de provence
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
3-5 drops stevia
1 cup water

1. Place all ingredients in a blender
2. Process on high speed until smooth and cream
3. Pour over your favorite salad greens
4. Store remaining dressing in a glass jar in fridge
5. Keeps for up to 5 days (if it lasts that long)

Our garden is yielding prolifically at present; therefore, every evening we eat a small mountain of salad. As you can guess, this Green Goddess Dressing is a current favorite which I make a few times a week.

Tuscan White Bean Salad

It has been so hot here –Sunday was a scorching 104 degrees. Because of the toasty weather, I’ve been looking for quick, cool ways to get hits of protein.

Really, all I want to eat is fruit and lemon slushes these days. However, this white bean concoction has been a winner for the family during this hot spell. The boys have been scarfing it down plain and in quesadillas. My younger son absolutely loves it as does my husband; I like it too! My older son eats it somewhat grudgingly, though he does eat it; a good thing since has become a bit picky of late.

The trick to this dish is pressure cooking the beans so that you can keep your kitchen cool. It takes less than 15 minutes to pressure cook white beans (if you pre-soak them), whereas it takes up to 2 hours to cook pre-soaked white beans on the regular stove top.

If you are looking for in-depth instructions and tips on how to prepare beans, Recipes from an Ecological Kitchen by Lorna Sass is one of my favorite cookbooks and my bean cooking bible. I highly recommend it. I knew Lorna back in the day (when I lived in NYC). She took yoga classes at the studio where I later became a teacher.

Tuscan White Bean Salad
2 cups cooked white beans
3 oven roasted tomatoes, see recipe below
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped

1. In a large bowl, combine beans and roasted tomatoes
2. Drizzle with vinegars and oil
3. Sprinkle with salt and rosemary
4. Serve

On a technical note, you may have noticed the addition of my photo next to all of my comments on elanaspantry.com. It’s a new feature I’ve implemented on the site. You too can have a photo associated with your comments by creating an account at gravatar.com using the same email address you use to leave your comments here. What is a gravatar? According to gravatar.com, “A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an avatar image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites.” So go ahead, add some flair to your comments and go grab a gravatar (it’s FREE!).

Also, in other technical updates, remember to use the forum! It is the ideal place for questions, more so than the comments sections of the posts on the website. The forums have a wealth of information and are becoming more active day by day.

If you have a question, you can always check out my FAQ page –most questions are already answered there.

Thanks all and stay cool!

Lemon Cooler

Looking for some cool refreshment? Then look below, not to the “recipe” above. I found this little yellow post-it in the kitchen today after my husband made the boys breakfast. It seems my younger son did a bit of cooking (when dad went upstairs to take a shower) and has also apparently begun to create and record his own recipes.

Unfortunately, I can’t really recommend this dish which I believe is called, “French Toast Scrambled Eggs.” My son has a habit, when we make french toast, of cooking up the last of the batter, after all the bread is gone. It seems that now he’s going for a short cut to get more of that juicy batter and has created a dish of his own. I think that’s pretty cool for an 8 year old.

Of late, the boys have been leaving me many notes on post its and scraps of paper; I save each and every one of them. It’s so fun to connect with them in writing since it is my favorite mode of communication. I think sometimes my husband and I email as much as we speak –especially when he’s on the road.

Conclusion has arrived on the baseball front; my older son (age 9) lost in the district tournament finals last night. They were clobbered 21-1. It wasn’t even close, the other team crushed us to move on to the state tourney. Now I can emphatically say, baseball is over! Phew. So much driving and practicing and by the end, a bit too much pressure for the little ones. However, I did enjoy watching my son after the loss, standing around, chatting and decompressing with his teammates, reviewing the game. The boys were so supportive of one another and had amazing team spirit. It was a fantastic all star season for him.

In other news, it’s been rather hot here in Colorado and tomorrow is supposed to be a scorcher at close to 100 degrees. To ward off the heat, I’ve been making these refreshing lemon slushes for the boys. We have them when they arrive home from day camp, or as a dessert following dinner. They are an optimal drink on a hot day.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and stays cool! We will have our first baseball free weekend in more than 4 months. What are you doing this weekend to beat the heat?